CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

One unresolved aspect of the new FTC Green Guides is their
potential impact on third party certification programs. Many
such programs are useful, and I fear that bureaucrats,
lawyers and purists will manipulate the Guides to pick
them apart. But in at least one recent case, an FTC
crackdown is hard to argue with. The Commission has
barred the “Tested Green” environmental
certification program. Turns out the organization was
selling its imprimatur for $189 (“Rapid
Certify”) or $549 (“Pro-Certify”)
based on a single criterion: a valid credit card
number. Business, we are told, was brisk.

– Gordon Kaye

Graphic Design News

ALL GLORY IS FLEETING
This wall-size mural in Lower Downtown Denver is made
from a garden-sized plot of live green grass. Denver
is one of three cities chosen to launch Green
Giant’s Green Awards campaign, which will
reward ideas, initiatives and thinkers in communities
across the nation. The mural is an example of the
“engagement marketing” movement, which
uses sustainable earth resources, from sand and snow
to flowers and moss, to convey
messages. “It’s designed to be
temporary; nothing is long-lived,” said Maikel
van de Mortel, co-founder of Element Six Media of
Minneapolis, which created the billboard. With
co-founder Bjorgvin Saevarsson, van de Mortel
started the company two years ago to create fleeting,
temporal campaigns. “No one believed it
would work,” said Saevarsson. But he says
that corporations are realizing that customers
care, and Green Giant approached them to develop
the eco-campaign. The other two cities tapped: Venice
CA (beach and sand carving) and Philadelphia
(snow sculpture).

HAVE A GLASS
Creative agency Beattie McGuinness Bungay New York
found a unique design solution that goes beyond
p-o-p. Their concept takes emptied bottles of Bols
Genever, a Dutch spirits brand, and via a specialized
handmade process recycles them into attractive drinking
glasses. The glasses are being leveraged as selling
tools and premiums, with the vision to expand the
program to consumers through a mail-in program.

SKEPTICAL EYE
In anticipation of corporate environmental messaging
leading up to Earth Day, ClimateCounts.org is re-upping
the ”Green Watching” campaign the group first
launched last year to help consumers question environmental
marketing claims and support companies taking meaningful
climate action. ClimateCounts.org and partnering
non-profits are encouraging consumers to use the
group’s website, free iPhone and smart phone
apps to send Green Watching messages to companies
stating when they see the difference between real
green action and meaningless green advertising.Read More >

ENVIRONMENTALISTS ARE NUTS
The Nutmobile, a traveling ambassador for the Planters
brand, has gone green. The new model runs on biodiesel
and has a wind turbine, solar panels, LED interior
lighting, recycled parts and wood floors purportedly
reclaimed from a 19th century barn. It made its public
debut at the Global Green Oscars preparty. The
redesigned Nutmobile joins a succession of mobile
ad vehicles, best known of which is the Oscar Mayer
Wienermobile. Jason Levine is Planters’ senior
director for marketing. He has the new Nutmobile is
based on an Isuzu box truck. According to James
Riseborough, chief creative officer of builder Turtle
Transit, the fiberglass peanut body is held in place
with an underlying steel frame. Energy captured and
converted by the wind turbine and solar panel drive
an alternator that recharges batteries for interior
lighting and sound system. Joe Doyon, Turtle
Transit’s general manager says that this
kind of advertising is having a renaissance due
to the popularity of camera phones.

GDUSA INHOUSE DESIGN AWARDS
Entry forms are now available for the American Inhouse Design
Awards. To download a PDF
CLICK HERE >

FOLLOWING THE RULES
Are you a Resource Conserver, an Animal Lover, a Outdoor
Enthusiast or a Health Fanatic. These are the four major
categories of “green consumers,” according
to The New Rules For Green Marketing by consultant
Jacqueline Ottman (Berrett-Koehler Publishers).
“Different segments of consumers tend to
interpret ’green’ in their own ways,”
says Ottman. In identifying the four segments, the
book stresses the importance of building credibility
with each of these streams. Interestingly, she offers
the successful example of Method, the home-products
company, which has subsequently been named a 2011
AIGA Corporate Design Leader for its sustainability
efforts.

ALL QUIET ON THE CHIP FRONT
Frito-Lay has silenced its SunChips brand bag. The
noisy but remarkably compostable eco-bag upset sensitive
consumers and triggered a noise-free bag movement. The
company states: “You asked for a quieter bag and
we heard you loud and clear.”Read More >

GOOD AND GREEN
Miriam Arond, Director of the Good Housekeeping Research
Institute, will show marketing executives how the criteria
was developed for the Green Good Housekeeping Seal at the
Good And Green Marketing Conference on May 11-12 in New
York City.Read More >